Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-04

world. ASK tlef lunurSQs Ul luOutauds
already assembled to Join their founder,
who would have persisted but for the Nv
ing stairs of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
island, and right in the midst Of surround.
ing cannib8lism and squalor, the passen-
gers discovered q Christian colony OF
churches and schools snd beautiful homes
and highest style of
RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.
For fifty years no missionary and no
Christian influence had landed there. Why
this oasis OF light amid desert OF heath
endom? Sixty years before, ship had
met disaster, and one of the sailors, IN
able to save anything else, went 10 MS
trunk and took out Bible which his
mother had placed there, and swan
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth. The
book was read on all sides until the rough
and vicious population was evangelical,
and q church was started, and en- en-
lightened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more brilliant
page than that which tells CT the trans
/ formation of a nation by one book. II
did not seem CT much importance whether
the sailor continued to hold the book in
his teeth or let it fall in the breakers, but
upon what small circumstance depended
what mighty results.
Practical inference: There are no in
signifcances in ourIlives. The minutest
thing is part of magnitude. Infnity is
made up of intinitesimsls. Great things
an aggregation of small things. Bethle-
hem manger pulling on star IN the east
ern sky. One book in drenChed sailors
mouth the vargeliZ9tion of q multitude.
One boat of pspyrus on the Nile freighted
with events for all ages. The fate OF
Christendom in @ basket let down from q
window on the wall. What you do, do
well. II you make rope make it strong
and true, for you know not now much
may depend on your workmanship. II
you fashion boat let it be waterproof,
for you know not who may sail in it. II
you put Bible in the trunk of your boy
as he goes from home, let it be heard in
your prayers, for it may have mission
as fsr-raaChlng IS the book which the
sailor
CARRIED IN HIS TEETH
to the Pitcairn beach The plainest mans
life is an island between two eternities-
eternity past ripping against his shoul-
ders, eternity to come touching his brow.
The casual, the accidental, that which
plan, and the rope that .ets the fugitive
apostle from the Damascus wall is the
cable that holds to it's mooring5 the ship
Of church in the northeast storm Of the
centuries.
Again, notice unrecOgniZed and Unre-
corded services. Who spun that rope?
Who tied it TO the basket? Who steaded
the illustrious preacher as he stepped
no q mn -pl "a of fbgl
arm or dismissed az anxious look from
his face until the Basket touched the
ground and discharged its magnificent
cargo? Not one of their names has come
to US, but there was no work done that
dsy in Demsscus or in all the earth COM
pared with the Importance OF their work
What II they had in the agitation tied
knot that could slip? What if the sound
of the mob at the door had led them to
say: "Psul must take care of himself
and we Will take care of ourselves" No,
no. They held the rope, and in doing so
did more for the Christian church than
sny thousand of Us will ever accomplish
But God knows and has made eternal
record of their undertaking. And they
know. How uXultaGt they must have
felt when they read his letters to the Ro-
mans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians,
to the Ephesians, to the
Philippians to the Colossians,
to the Thessalonians, TO Timothy, to
Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews, and
when they heard how he walked out of
prison with the earthquake unlocking the
door for him, and TOOK command Of the
Alexsndrian corn ship when the sailors
were nearly scared TO death, aud
ppU CrrTuD , SEPNrg%
that nearly shook Felix of his judgment
sest. | hear the men and women who
helped him down through the window and
over the wall, talking in private over the
matter, and saying "HOw glad l am that
we effected that rescue! In coming times
others may get the glory of PauI's work,
but no one shall rob US Of the satisfaction
of knowing that we held the rope"
Once for thirty-siX hours we expected
every moment to 60 to the bottom Of the
ocean The waves struck through the
skylights and rushed down into the hold
of the ship and Missed against the boilers !
1t was sn awful time, but by the blessing
Of God and the faithfulness OF the men in
charge we came out of the cyclone and |
we arrived at home. Each one, before !
leaving the ship, thanked Captain An
or woman that went off that ship without |
thanking Captain Andrews, and when |
years after heard Of his death | was i'm
PEELED to write letter OF coincidence TO |
his family in Liverpool. Everybody re- !
cogniZed the goodness, the courage, the |
kindness of Captain Andrews; but it &C /
ours TO me now that we never thanked |
the engineer. He stood away down in |
the darkness amid the kissing furnaces
doing his whole duty. Nobody thanked |
the engineer, but God recognized his /
heroism and his continuance and his f. |
deity, aud there will be Just as high re-
ward for the engineer who worked out of |
sight, as for the captain who stood on |
the bridge of the ship in the midst of the |
bowling tempest.
There are said to be about 60, 900 min
listers of religion in this country. About |
80, 900 l warrant came from early homes |
which had to struggle for the neCessaUes |
of life. The sons of rich bankers and |,
merchants generally become bankers and |
merchants. The most of those who be-
comesmiuisters are the sons of those who |
had terrific struggles to get their every
bread. The collegiate and theological
education of that son took every luxury
from the parental table
FOR EIGHT YEARS.
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